Gokurakumaru

I tried using the product code for the PSX in PS3game using my Japanese PS account and wasn't able to download the game. Has the offer expired?

The flyer it came on said it was only valid until 26-Jul-2013. I guess they weren't kidding.

You'd probably be better off picking up the Blu-ray verion of whatever is available on BD as Japan and North America are in the same Blu-ray region.

Just posting this for others in case they aren't aware. The following BDs are completely region free (verified by playing in my Australian region B Playstation 3).

• The first Macross Budokan concert
• SDF Macross series
• DRYL
• Flashback 2012
• Both Frontier movies (original print run)
• Flashback 7

I can't vouch for anything else as that's all I own, but I suspect Bandai aren't region locking anything Macross related. Not particularly helpful for anybody buying DVDs rather than Blu Rays of course.

So CDJ finally listed it:

http://www.cdjapan.c...ml?KEY=BCXA-719

Curiously, CDJ's states this in their description:

Now CDJ's been known to have incorrect info from time to time, so try not to get your hopes up for english-subs since it's not in the official description from Bandai. At least, as of yet.

Maybe our Japan-based fans can verify by directly asking either BigWest or BandaiVisual if english-subs will be an option at all with Macross Plus BD.

Looks like a poor translation. The Japanese description says the OVA includes the English dub, not the movie, and that the subtitles are Japanese, not English. This is consistent with past DVD releases.

Amazon lists both Zero and the budokan concert as being region A only.

http://www.amazon.co...076436&pf_rd_m=AN1VRQENFRJN5

http://www.amazon.co...?ie=UTF8&m=AN1VRQENFRJN5&s=dvd

I've heard anecdotally that the budokan disc doesn't work in region B players. Admittedly, I can't test this out myself, but from experience Amazons listings are usually accurate. Also, not all companies list their regions-Universal in particular - and while not entirely relevant approx 70% of region B anime I've come across IS region locked, so I presume that a similar percentage stands for other regions as well.

As for subs...there's plenty more reasons for eng subs not being on Macross discs than plain economics, as we all know only too well. But hey if Bandai Visuals other releases are anything to go by, maybe new Macross releases will contain some sort of subs (ie, similar to Yamato 2199 having subs while the original series remaster on BD doesn't). We can always hope I guess.

I own the Budokan concert -- picked it up on in Japan without really thinking about it -- and it runs on my Australian PS3 which is region B. Bandai hasn't locked the Macross TV series or Do You Remember Love discs either. I don't own the Zero BD to verify, but if it's locked it's the outlier.

10% off at HMV for anybody who hasn't ordered yet. If you're not in Japan you don't pay tax so it's actually 10,620 yen when you order.

http://www.hmv.co.jp...7%AE%B1_5251317

超時空要塞マクロス おい・ふざけていますか

Hahaha. Champagne comedy!!!

CD Japan has shipped my order so I'm locked in either way. If this really is censored though I'll be very disappointed and won't be buying any future BDs without playing wait and see first.

Filled out the special order form at CD Japan. Much obliged for the head's up, Keith.

Hell, for all we know it could have been a lie that the Protoculture told the Zentradi so they wouldn't surprise fold into a colonized world. But hell, let's take a look at some atmosphereic/near atmospheric folds in Macross.

Macross Zero: The AFOS folds right out of Earth's atmosphere to somewhere in space, then subsequently does the same with Shin.

DYRL: Misa & Hikaru get caught in Britai's fold wake, and "luckily" find themselves folded back to Earth. No nasty effects.

DYRL: Both Bodolza & Laplamiz fold close enough to the Earth's atmosphere to be seen from the ground, no nasty effects.

DYRL (Saturn/PS1 game footage mind you): ONLY the ship folded with evacuated citizens & already built city inside.

Macross Plus: Both Isamu & Guld fold just outside of Earth's defense net, not terribly far from the atmosphere. Considering that the satellites are within Earth's orbin, it can be asumed that they were as well. For that matter, they didn't fold very far from Eden either.

Macross 7: The Protodevelin fold anywhere they damn well please, no ill side effects.

Macross 7: Basara chases down Emilia's signal to a defold within that colony's atmosphere.

Macross 7: Max actually folds from orbit to the surface of Varuta 7.

Macross Dynamite 7: Liza folds from the pirate outpost to Zola's orbit.

Macross Dynamite 7: The Ginga Kujira fold right from Zola's atmosphere/orbit.

Macross Frontier: Both the Vajra & Michel fold out of Galia 4's atmosphere as the MDE is going off.

Macross F - Sayonara no Tsubasa: The Vajra infested Battle Frontier folds with Alto right off the surface of their homeworld.

• From what the show implies, the AFOS is protoculture tech, not Zentradi.
  
• Bodolza and Laplamiz ships are some 10kms long. You can see the Great Wall of China from space. What makes you think they were at sub-orbital altitudes?
  
• In Plus Guld and Isamu fold in above the orbit of satellites which are at least 35,000+kms above the Earth (geostationary orbits) and hardly can be considered in the atmosphere.
  
• And Frontier explicitly states that the Vajra are using fold tech that is nothing like that seen in the rest of the franchise, i.e. near instantaneous and fault-immune. So they're a really bad example.
  
• Haven't watched all of Macross 7 so not much to say about that...
  

Unless you have some better examples of Zentradi technology being used in the same way the Macross was, yeah, it's safe to say the reaction from the Zentradi was not just because it was surprising, it's because it was downright dangerous.

Disappointing there is still no proper Macross game for the PS3, but another hybrid pack is no bad thing. Especially with how well-realised the game version of Sayonara no Tsubasa was. Day 1 purchase.

Wait, has it really been 10 years since Macross Zero? Dang I feel old all of the sudden.

You aren't that old. Episode 1 was released in December 2002 and the production was so lethargic the final episode wasn't released until October 2004. So it's not really 10 years old by any meaningful measure.

Back in stock at HMV for anybody who missed it first time around.

http://www.hmv.co.jp/product/detail/4046364

I was playing with my SDF1, my VF, a stolen image from google and photoshop...

Totally awesome work! If I wasn't saving for a mortgage that would have sold me.

After stealing an experimental fighter, destroying numerous orbital defence satellites, having a dogfight through Macross City (presumably endangering the lives of thousand of civilians), and by virtue of him being there causing the death of Guld Bowman and the destruction of another experimental fighter.... then yeah, he probably should have gotten kicked out of the spacy.

This. And I've always thought anybody believing otherwise is either not paying attention to the story or just plain delusional. But probably both.

I want to get tv roy at some point. That is the story canon after all. No way roy suvived the end of the war through the use of zentradi cloning chambers to appear as an actor in the movie. He was shot down, forgot to see a doctor and was officially known as the guy who got beaten by some rookie girl mech pilots thanks to his drunken behavior..Not having the tv series version is just a DYRL fanboy's excuse to avoid this harsh truth.

Weird sentiment. The story may be the canon version but the Valkyrie designs aren't. Chunky hands FTL.

Give me a break. The troops decided to mutiny based on their love for microwaves and pop culture BASED AROUND A TEENAGE GIRL SINGING.

What war in history ever featured beaming a teenage girl's pop song directly to the cockpits of enemy and allied fighters alike? I love Macross, but it is not hard sci-fi.

Every war ever in the history of man featured defectors. You think it's somehow remarkable a large enough group of Zentradi could defect as to make a particular fleet impotent. I don't. People move to different countries and change their nationalities every single day based on cultural environment. Given the binary choice of "war" versus "peace-love-food-discos-sex" I'm surprised Bodolza himself didn't defect. I'm stunned you find it so incredulous.

Oh and as for "hard" sci fi. LOL. The definitions you post seem to vary based on what the central narrative which has absolutely nothing to do with its plausability.

To quote you:

"Is it a realistic prediction that in 1999 an alien spacecraft piloted by giants will crash on earth giving us the power to create transforming robot jet planes? No. Was it a realistic prediction in the '80s? No."

Would you call the story of "Contact" hard sci fi? It's the exact same concept as SDF Macross. Except aliens sought out human contact in that instance. But there are no transforming planes in that story so the fact that the spaceship travels through time which is completely disallowed by everything we know about spacetime doesn't bother you I suppose. Nobody's singing, after all.

Yeah, that's not IN SDF Macross, now is it?

Zentradi/human ancestory is in SDFM though. So sexual compatibility is pretty freaking unremarkable in that respect. You're suggesting the fossil record disproves the existence of a species or genetic intervention? In spite of the fossil record proving people wrong every decade or so? Do tell.

I like the art

Because whenever I see people trying to make something "realistic" it seems to always end up being about nothing at all. All scientific progress - real world scientific progress - came about because of people who were "unrealstic" and imagined that things could be done differently and then tried to apply their thinking to reality.

Amen. Hard to believe just over 100 years ago there was no theory of general relativity and that people thought the universe was filled with an aether. I mean even after general relativity it's almost unbelievable from an everyday point of view that time is nothing but an illusion.

Although with that said the Vajura ignoring the laws of general relativity bugged the hell out of me, so maybe I'm a hypocrite.

I don't know if you can really call Macross hard sci-fi. Even the original Macross is a show where a teenage girl sings evil aliens into becoming friends with earth. It's kind of sort of Care Bears, you know?

It's an unlikely story, but I don't know how two races making peace makes it any less hard sci-fi. If anything about the show is goofy it's the transforming planes.

Oh and Minmay didn't sing them into becoming friends with Earth. Mutineering troops forced a ceasefire and Bodolza wanting to annhilate the Vrlitwhai fleet instigated a defection.

Also, keep in mind the VF-25 Messiah is 50 years more advanced than the VF-1 Valkyrie AND the VF-1 Valkyrie was the first OverTechnology craft humanity had ever made (and all the trial and error that goes with that). The VF-25 is also just as much atmospheric fighter as space fighter, like the VF-1 Valkyrie.

I didn't realise people weren't comparing apples with apples with the VF-25 unloaded versus VF-1 fully loaded. The experimental nature of the VF-1 can account for it happily I guess.

because the VF-25 was introduced over 50 years after the VF-1. it's along the lines of comparing an F-86 to an F-22 (Although considering the rate of technological development appears to be much faster in Macross than in the real world it's probably more like comparing an F-22 to a Sopwith Camel)

I don't really see these as being even remotely the same ballparks. Propellor fighter at the dawn of winged flight compared to a modern jet versus a for all intents and purposes infinite amount of power output from a reactor being used to drive a turbine and super-heat fuel. Wouldn't all the science have to go into chemical science in the second scenario versus the radical evolution of auroneutical engineering and modelling you get in the first?

Oh and while I don't doubt the VF-25 is designed as an atmospheric fighter as one of its benchmarks, there's just no atmosphere for it to be used in an exploration fleet. Isn't one of the Frontier premises that the fleets are building their own tech? I assumed it and the Galaxy VFs were engineered on premise and would naturally be optimised for in-space flight. Resource conservation seemed to be a premium concern in Frontier. Although I guess we know VFs are easily capped with limiters so maybe that's a non-argument.

Well first at maximum speed the pilot would still be experiencing 1G in the cockpit. you only experience G's when you accelerate remember.

Now if were talking strait line acceleration... well, the VF-1 has a T-W ratio of 2.49 with standard takeoff weight, the space shuttle at take off has a T-W ratio of 3.39. It would need a ridiculously high T-W ratio before you have to worry about fatal G-loads during strait line acceleration (i.e. the VF-25 with it's 39.09 T-W ratio)

And if we're talking about G-loads during a turn, modern aircraft are already capable of executing maneuvers that exceed the G-loads that the average person can handle. A variable fighter would do the same thing modern fighters do, have the flight computer prevent the plane from performing any maneuvers that would kill the pilot.

Not knowing anything about aerospace engineering, why is the VF-1's thrust to weight ratio so low in the first place? Obviously it's a function of how much air the plane can heat and move, but why is it so low versus a VF-25 which logically should have been designed with one of the lowest given it needs to store reaction mass internally since it's primarily a space fighter. Could the VF-1 be upgraded to put it more in line with the VFs circa 2050 era? I'm not getting the science behind what makes a plane with a nuclear reactor in each leg such a wet fish power-wise.

Okay, "chased" was a bad word. But later in the series Alto is clearly more interested in Sheryl than Ranka from the misconstrued kiss above the concert hall to going to his old man's place to see her. Which doesn't change my response to the poll at all. She's still a crap character.

Isamu and Sheryl for me.

I love Macross Plus. It's my favorite behind the original series. But Isamu is a completely self-centred apeface who acts with criminal disregard for human life when he gets his nose bent out of joint. Guld is not far behind but he's a more sympathetic character.

Sheryl is just annoying. She's hot and all but I couldn't give two hoots about her or her plight. Again she's just self-centred and Alto chases after her... because... um, why again? Famous and hot? Yeah. Not much depth there.

second batch of hauls awaiting to be displayed...

Holy crap, man! I'm surprised you can afford a house to put them in after that shopping spree!

See, but they didn't ride off into the sunset...they rode off into nothingness...lost.

It's reasonable to not want to delve back into those characters...I'm fine with it.

However, being told they disappeared isn't satisfying. It's not happily lived ever after or dead...it's limbo someplace in between.

I only want a final fate for that ship stated...it doesn't need to have a series, just a mention in a new installment of the franchise.

By the year 2060 happily ever after still means dead for those characters regardless. I really don't want to hear the story of Hikaru, Misa, and Minmay falling into a black hole and being crushed. Do you?